Penpals
by supervicki
Summary: Eight year old Mirai Kuriyama writes to her pen pal nine year old Akihito Kanbara. Akirai Penpal AU.


Hello, everyone! I decided to do an Akirai Pen pal AU one-shot. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Mirai Kuriyama and Akihito Kanbara from Beyond the Boundary.

* * *

"Mirai, you received another letter from Akihito-kun!" Mrs. Kuriyama yelled from downstairs. The peach colored hair eight year old quickly trotted down the steps and rushed up to her mother.

"Where is it? Where is it?" Mirai asked, exasperated. Mrs. Kuriyama handed her letter with a grin. Mirai wasted no time to rush back upstairs into her room to read her new letter. This was very special to her because it was from her pen pal Akihito, who currently lived in Australia. Her class at school had an opportunity to have a pen pal with a foreigner, and with Mirai's luck, she was given a pen pal who is Japanese and can communicate well. His name is Akihito Kanbara and he had been living in Australia with his mom since he was three years old because of his mom's job. He's nine years old and it surprised Mirai how he's basically fluent in Japanese and English. All of her classmates at school rarely sent letters back and forth with their pen pals, mostly because they couldn't really communicate back and forth like Akihito and Mirai can. Their relationship clicked when they kept on communicating, becoming best friends instantly.

Mirai looked down at the sealed envelope. Akihito spelled Mirai's name in cursive, with the kanji underneath it. She flipped to the back of the letter to open it; only to be faced with something that made her giggle out loud. Akihito took the liberty of drawing different frames of glasses all over the back of the envelope with a crooked smiley face at the bottom. He had this weird thing of loving girls with glasses and when he found out that Mirai wears some herself, he written frantically for her to send a photograph of herself. His exact words in the letter were, _"I must see the picture of the bespectacled beauty I call my best friend!"_ She smiled at the memory. Opening the envelope carefully, Mirai took out the letter.

_Dear Mirai-chan,_

_How have you bean? Bean? I think I meant been. I'm writing in pen and I honestly do not want to scratch that out because it's funny. Haha, laugh with me. Now I want some beans… Well, I've been pretty well, there's just been too much going on at school. Oh! Let me tell you. One of my guy friends got in trouble at school because he climbed all the way up on the monkey bars and was too scared to get down. It wasn't even that high! He was literally crying for his mom. No lie, the teacher didn't know what to do, so she called his mom to come get him down. By the time his mom came, he had snot running down his nose and he started crying more when he saw her. His mom was seriously mad that I think I saw a vein in her forehead pop. She went up to the monkey bars, grabbed his leg, pulled him down, and caught him. It was like watching an angry superwoman saving a helpless citizen, who happened to be her son. The next day, he told me he was grounded for a month and that he has to make sure he stays on "the Earth", according to his mom. I was literally dying when I heard that. I can't believe he did that. Oh! Did you see my drawings I drew on the back of the envelope? Aren't I just an artist? It's just a small reminder of how much I love glasses and THAT I'M WAITING FOR YOU TO SEND ME A PHOTOGRAPH OF YOU WITH YOUR GLASSES. I'm sorry for yelling there, I just need to see your pretty face. Wait, that sounded weird but I just want to see a picture of you. Actually to help you send it faster, I sent a photograph of myself so you now have to send me one of you. It's the rule. No, no, it's the law. I just declared it. Tomorrow I have a field trip to the aquarium and I can't wait to tell you about it when I'm done. I'll be waiting for your letter AND picture! Hahaha!_

_Sincerely (why do I have to say that?), Akihito_

_P.S. you better send it or I'll personally send you a knuckle sandwich._

Mirai was wiping away tears because of how hard she was laughing. Akihito sure knew how to make her laugh. Paper clipped to the letter was a picture of Akihito himself. He was smiling to the camera, hugging a stuffed dinosaur to his chest. From what Mirai can tell, it looked like that Akihito made make-shift glasses for his stuffed dinosaur. All she could do was shake her head. She looked more at his features; his scruffy blond hair that was sticking out in every direction, one of his front teeth was missing in his goofy grin, and his golden brown eyes was shining like the sun. Mirai took the photo and placed it on her mirror, next to other pictures of her family and friends, and then placed the letter in her special drawer that she kept of the other letters. She glanced back up at the mirror and thought real hard of what photo she wanted to send to Akihito. She never really kept pictures of herself, only if she was with her best friends Yui and Sakura. She suddenly remembered something. Mirai ran back downstairs to find her mom in the kitchen cooking dinner.

"Mom! Do you know where your Polaroid camera is at?" Mirai asked her mom.

Mrs. Kuriyama took a second to ponder. "I think it's somewhere in my closet. Why? What do you—" She couldn't even finish that sentence because Mirai ran out the room to her parent's room. Mrs. Kuriyama rolled her eyes when she heard shuffling and muffled groans coming from room. She suddenly heard a scurrying of footsteps from Mirai coming back, with the camera in her hands.

"Mom! I need for you to do me a favor!"

* * *

Akihito walked in his and his mom's apartment after a long day at primary school. He sighed when he saw his mom spread out on the couch, sleeping away. He shrugged and dropped his backpack before going to the kitchen. He wasn't much of a cook but he can make decent meals for a nine year old. He needed to teach himself because his mom would be either at work or sleeping to actually cook a meal. Akihito took out leftover meat and started making stew for him and his mom. She can eat it when she's out at work, God knows what time will that be. While carefully cutting the vegetables, Akihito heard a loud yawn from behind him. He turned his head to see his mom getting up from the couch.

"Ahhhh, I don't want to get up. Oh, Akihito. You're home. How was school today?" she asked, crossing the kitchen to the refrigerator to get herself a bottled water.

"It was good, I passed my spelling and math test." Akihito said, never taking his concentration off of cutting a carrot. His mom took a swig of water and ruffled his hair.

"Good job, Akihito! That's really good! Ah, I forgot to tell you; you got a letter from Mirai-chan earlier today. I put it on your desk."

Akihito paused abruptly and ran to his room, dropping the items in his hand. His mom yelped because she narrowly missed her toe being sliced open because of Akihito dropping the large cutting knife without a care. "I was almost toeless!" she hollered after him but she knew that it would go ignored.

Akihito ran to his desk and grabbed the letter in his hands. It's been two weeks since he sent his letter and was praying to God that she listened to what he said. He opened the letter, not realizing something falling to the ground when he began reading.

_Dear Akihito-kun,_

_That was quite a story. I couldn't stop laughing when I was reading it. I've been doing good, busy studying the multiplication tables at school. Did you know we had to learn a song for that? It was a nightmare! Not only that, but we had to recite it individually in front of the whole class. I swear my face was a whole new color of red. Yesterday, my friends Yui and Sakura dared me to go up to this boy, who is a big meanie by the way, and tell him that he stinks. And it was the truth; he stunk BAD. So I gathered enough courage to go up to him during recess and told him that he stinks. Everyone gathered around us, thinking that he was going to hit me. But something else happened. He started crying! He was crying and he ran away to the restroom. He was all talk but no bite. But I was the one that got in trouble in the end because he tattle-telled on me to the teacher. I now have to sit out during recess. That sucks. Okay, I finally did what you wanted me to do. I sent you a picture of myself. Don't laugh, please? I had to get my mom to take the picture for me on a Polaroid camera because I didn't have one of myself. Please don't laugh, I'm not really pretty. Ughhhh, I have to recite my multiplication song tomorrow and I really don't want to do it. Can't wait for your next letter!_

_Sincerely (I don't know, you gotta say it), Mirai_

_P.S. those make-shift glasses on your stuffed dinosaur are ridiculous._

Akihito chuckled at the last line of the letter. _Wait, picture?_ He looked around and found a Polaroid picture on the ground by his feet. When he turned it to see the front of the picture, he gasped out loud. There on the picture was Mirai smiling nervously at the camera, showing a peace sign with her fingers. Akihito began blushing real hard and whispered to himself, "Why would I laugh at this bespectacled beauty? She just took my breath away…"


End file.
